Chances are this outbreak of FMD has come from the IAH laboratories at Pirbright, 3 miles from the farm. The Pirbright laboratory, a subdivision of the Institute for Animal Health and the only lab in the UK licensed to keep the foot and mouth virus and other exotic animal pathogens, was the hub of scientific activity during the 2001 foot and mouth epidemic. Apart from performing all the diagnostic work, it also made predictions about the spread of disease, gave scientific advice to the government and formulated 500,000 doses of vaccine in the eventuality that the government would use it in addition to its mass culling strategy. Operational funding has been held at the same amount by Defra for the last 3 years (a cut in real terms) – has security lapsed as a result? There has been a change of the guard, but there should be some mud sticking to Milliband and Brown. More HERE and HERE.I didn't post it because I couldn't see how I could possibly stand up such an allegation. A few minutes ago, the Press Association is now reporting this...
There were growing fears tonight that the outbreak of foot and mouth disease on a farm in Surrey was caused by a leak from a nearby animal research laboratory.
Officials from the Department for the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) said the strain of the virus detected in infected cattle was the same as one being used at the Pirbright laboratory a few miles from the infected area. They could not say definitely that the laboratory was the source of the disease but immediately increased the size of the protection and surveillance zones covering farms in the area. Defra said the strain was not one recently found in animals but was similar to ones used in diagnostic laboratories and vaccine production. In a statement, the department said: "The present indications are that this strain is a 01 BFS67-like virus, isolated in the 1967 foot and mouth disease outbreak in Great Britain."
The strain is present at the Pirbright site's Institute of Animal Health and was used in a vaccine batch manufactured last month, Defra said.
Oh My Good God.
I hope that is the case. So much easier to put right and won't cost the Nation an Olympic sized fortune.
ReplyDelete"there should be some mud sticking to Milliband and Brown". Gosh you poor little Tory chaps must be wetting yourselves with anticipation. Now if you could only also implicate a bungling Brussels bureaucrat it would be like Christmas Day spent at a musical all over again for you...
ReplyDeleteAnother aspect that might surprise the innocent: when the Govt assures us the slaughtered carcasses will be 'incinerated', what they really mean is - sold as 'tallow' for burning in power stations.
ReplyDeleteIt's 'renewable energy', don't you know.
Don't believe it ? - details here
http://cityunslicker.blogspot.com/2007/08/government-according-to-salvador-dali.html
So referencing your earlier post about the 4 horseman of the apocalyps Iain, you could argue none of these disasters are totally about bad luck. The Glasgow and London attempted car bombings were likely timed because Brown was the new PM, the flood damage was greater due to cuts in flood defence spending, and the foot and mouth outbreak possibly happened because the security budget was cut. I think it is true what they say you make your own luck, and part of Gordon's "bad luck" is just chickens coming home to roost through his earlier incompetence.
ReplyDeleteThe virus was being produced not by the government part of the lab, but by Merial Animal Health, a private company which just happens to share the site because they are contracted and it makes sense to combine locations.
ReplyDeleteGosh, aren't Tories getting desperate to pin anything on Gordon Brown these days. My advice is that this is part of your problem, not part of your solution.
Iain, I am with you. This was just a wild eyed conspiracy theory. Total tosh. Until it looked like it was possible.
ReplyDeleteStrange.
There is a private company on the site making vaccine. I wonder who the company is, and if they donate to Labour?
BTW, in some ways it may be good news. More on my blog about that.
http://aconservatives.blogspot.com/
Nick Drew, if that is the case then that is good news indeed.
ReplyDeleteEurope uses tallow as well and it is a renewable energy source we used to use and is used in Europe.
I wonder what Brown's funding of Porton Down has been like recently ?
ReplyDeletePerhaps this explains the fast reaction and public cancelling of holidays etc - guilt not leadership.
This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
ReplyDeleteTone, stop swearing.
ReplyDeleteI drove around much of the rural UK just before the 2001 election, and please let me say that my TOTAL sympathy is for the farmers and communities directly affected, and all of rural England, Wales, Scotland AND Ireland.
ReplyDeleteThis could indeed be a VERY effective issue for Conservatives, IF the laboratory (govt or private) is the real culprit.
And for the same reason that Boris Johnson's past indescretions (intentional or satirical or both) are such a BAD issue for Tories:
THERE IS NO DEFENSE FOR THE INDEFENSIBLE
Strong grounds indeed exist for substantive, effective attack on the govt on ENVIRONMENTAL grounds. And I'm NOT talking about global warming. Don't have to believe in GW, or that recent floods are it's harbinger, to understand that overheated development plus insufficient flood control plus flash flooding is a receipe for disaster. Blaiming Labour for the rain is a stretch, but holding its leaders to account for bad growth management and disaster planning is not.
Now the horror of a new F&M outbreak - and one that may be the result of government inaction or inattention - may takes some serious shine Gordon Brown's honeymoon glow.
GB and his team are moving swiftly to deal with the new crisis; that is the perogative of any government, though many fritter it away. In this case Tories still have two significant advantages: Labour's rather lackluster enviromental record AND its rocky relationship with rural Briton.
nick says they will be incinerated. and not buried. Incineration is thought to have spread the virus in 2001. burying on site where the slaughteroccurs is the safest way to deal with the virus, but it is not permitted now by EU water regulations.
ReplyDeleteDEFRA have begun slaughtering not only infected herds but also adjacent perfectly healthy herds just like last time (BBC). They are incinerating the carcasses and not burying them which is known to spread the virus (EU rules forbid burial which was the practice in 1967).
ReplyDeleteThere is no mention of vaccination which is how FMD is dealt with in the rest of the EU, where outbreaks never spread more than a few miles.
Is this FMD going to be used by Brussels like 2001 to try to destroy as much of British farming as they can? It looks like it.
DEFRA are instructed what measures to take from Brussels. There is nothing Gordon Brown can do about it.
From France 24 -
ReplyDeleteFarmers and the government said they were prepared to accept the innoculation of infected animals, in a reversal of previous policy, as scientists worked to determine the exact strain of the disease and if vaccine stocks were available.
(no sign of an innoculation programme yet)
France 24 - says innoculations given to 'infected' animals. Vaccination is given to animals to prevent their becoming infected. Is there a little confusion?
ReplyDeleteCompare France 24's report with the Sunday Telegraph's leader, which says that the slaughter policy in 2001 was Europe's.
ReplyDelete'Vaccination was after all, the preferred mode of containing foot and mouth on the Continent before the introduction of Europe-wide 'imort control and slaughter' policy in 1992.'
The French station is attempting to blame the slaughter policy of 2001 on the UK government. Which was it? The UK government or the EU?
As I understand it, the EU is responsible for the regulatory environment of British agriculture, and were obeying their own rules by insisting slaughter - and slaughter of many animals not even affected as is happening already in this outbreak.
Maybe in 2001 neither the EU cared if British agriculture went to the dogs and neither did the Blairs with Cherie's hatred of country dwellers and all their works, and the attitude of Labour MPs riven with hatred of what they see as land-owning classes.
Brown seems to be thrusting himself to the fore this time. Will he be able to overturn the EU slaughter policy as France and Holland did in 2001?
Will be held over the coals by the EU on this - trying to get some support for the Constitution - and ensuring he doesn't cave in and offer a referendum?
On such things do the loives of Britain's farm animals and the livelihoods of its farmers depend.
Defra are just doing their job:
ReplyDeleteDepartment for the Elimination of Farming and Rural Affairs
David Boothroyd said...
ReplyDeleteThe virus was being produced not by the government part of the lab, but by Merial Animal Health, a private company which just happens to share the site because they are contracted and it makes sense to combine locations.
Gosh, aren't Tories getting desperate to pin anything on Gordon Brown these days. My advice is that this is part of your problem, not part of your solution.
Is it feeling sticky, Mr. Booithroyd?